Stefanie Syman: The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America

The Vancouver Sun recently said this about the author and book: In the late 1800s, the few Americans who had heard of hatha yoga knew it as a set of circus tricks practised by charlatans and dangerous lunatics, capable of driving Christian men and women insane if they dabbled in its darkness. Fast-forward to Easter 2009, at the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn. The activities were yoga for kids, dancing, storytelling and Easter-egg decorating. In The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America, Stephanie Syman traces this metamorphosis through the people who made it happen. She begins with poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson and his contemporary, Henry David Thoreau, whose shared reverence for the Bhaghavad-Gita helped prepare the ground for a sympathetic reception for Swami Vivekananda, the first Indian guru to visit America. Read the rest of that article, here. The author was also a guest on the WNYC Radio program, The Brian Lehrer Show. Listen to the podcast of that show, below.

Yoga and Religion from WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show by listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

Mark Singleton, author of Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, and Stefanie Syman, author of The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America, talk about the origins and links between yoga and religion.

Download the podcast here. See also: Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge Hindu Studies Series), The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America